To my knowledge, you have no choice but to provide your own UIBarButtonItem
. You are not permitted from interrupting how UINavigationController
works by default. That is, you cannot override the behavior of the back button. You must provide a custom bar button item and set it as the navigation item's left bar button item.
(As a side note, the sort of behavior you're looking for may be an indication of a poor navigation pattern. Back buttons should almost always back out of a navigation hierarchy sequentially.)